We Exist in Multitudes

The Writers Room TRIPOD writers-in-residence contributors include Hasciya Austin, Brenda Bailey, Patricia Burton, Rosalyn Cliett, Merle Curran-Ackert, Barbara Dale, Dejah Jade, Jordan McCullough, Carol Richardson McCullough, Darrell Omo-Lamai, Victoria Huggins Peurifoy,Chanda Rice, Mabedi Sennanyana, and Devin Welsh.

In July of 2019, artists Courtney Bowles and Mark Strandquist collaborated with the TRIPOD program (an ongoing photography and writing program of Writers Room at Drexel connecting high school students, YouthBuild Philadelphia students, Drexel students, and older community members) to create a series of projects inspired by the mural Boy with the Raised Arm.

In response to the prompt,”What do you stand for?” the intergenerational group of collaborators used photography, performance, and poetry to share their collective visions of the past, present, and future.

A culminating celebratory event was held at the Wiota Street Community Garden, just feet from the mural, where a collaborative photo banner was displayed; food, stories, and hugs were shared; and participants read their poetry and dreams for the neighborhood.

Courtney Bowles and Mark Strandquist have spent years using art as a vehicle to help amplify, celebrate, and power social justice movements. The media campaigns and immersive exhibitions they lead have helped advocates close a prison, pass laws, raise tens of thousands of dollars to free people from prison, and connect the dreams and demands of communities impacted by the criminal justice system with a national audience. They currently co-direct the People’s Paper Co-op and Reentry Think Tank in Philadelphia, PA, and Mark founded and co-directs the Performing Statistics project and the covid-19 rapid response project Fill The Walls With Hope, Rage, Resources, and Dreams.

This work was part of Power Map: Historic Mural Activations, a series of five commissioned events, performances and workshops activating murals created in Mural Arts Philadelphia’s first 20 years (1984-2003) that depict power and empowerment. Five diverse figurative murals served as the starting point for an exploration of the history of their creation and the neighborhood change that the murals have witnessed. They also offered a prompt for thinking about how power is depicted in public art today and in the recent past. Featured artists include Mark Strandquist & Courtney Bowles with Tripod, Studio 22 (Nasheli Juliana Ortiz, Marién Vélez and Lorna Mulero), Eva Wǒ, Marie Alarcon and Ken McFarlane. This project has been developed on the occasion of MAP’s 35th anniversary by guest curator-in-residence Daniel Tucker.

See We Exist in Multitudes as part of Mural Art Philadelphia’s Power Map: Historic Mural Activations